It was another good week for grass growth around the country. Growth is still ahead of the average for this time of year. However, cooler conditions are forecast for the coming week, which may see a slowing of growth rates.

Grazing conditions have not been ideal over the last two weeks, with a lot of rain falling in most areas.

This is set to continue, with above-average rainfall forecast for the coming week. As a result, graze-outs have suffered and achieving the desired residual of 4cm is becoming more challenging.

Stronger pre-grazing covers and poor weather conditions have led to poor utilisation of grass and it may be time to get the roll of wire and pigtail stakes back out.

Ground conditions are still good in general so we don’t necessarily want to restrict the cows to grazing a certain area after each milking. However, minimising the amount of grass being walked on and keeping fresh grass in front of cows should help utilisation.

Sunday is the first day of September and farms should have grown half their grass for the autumn period by now. A cover/LU of around 300kg is where you want to be at.

If you are behind target and not likely to reach the target of 1,100kg/ha average farm cover by mid- to late September, slowing cows down for a week now while growth rates are high is the best way to get back on track. Concentrates may not be enough in some cases and supplementing with high-quality bales for a few days may be necessary.

Deadline

The fertiliser deadline is 15 September so the next two weeks are the last chance to get fertiliser out. Make sure there is enough fertiliser out to maximise growth and maintain grass quality over the autumn period.

It is also important that all reseeding is done before 15 September in order to get chemical N and P fertiliser out on the new reseed.

  • Average grass growth was 65 kg/day.
  • Cover/lu should be around 300kg on 1 September.
  • Chemical N and P fertiliser deadline line is 15 September.